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Summary and Reviews of So Many Books! by Gabriel Zaid

So Many Books! by Gabriel Zaid

So Many Books!

Reading and Publishing in an age of abundance

by Gabriel Zaid
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  • Sep 2003, 160 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

'An appealing, meditative collection of thoughts and observations on the book industry and the state of literature in the early 21st century. Book lovers of all stripes will enjoy this light piece of cultural criticism' -- Publishers Weekly

In So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid offers his thoughts and observations on the literary condition: a highly original analysis of the predicament that readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers find themselves in today--when there are simply more books than any of us can contemplate. In this brief collection of essays, Zaid combines the business savvy of a management consultant, the meditations of a poet, and the sense of humor of an unrepentant reader.

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Reviews

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This is a gem of a book - an absolute must read for anyone in the publishing industry, all book lovers and most importantly, for anyone who aspires to be a writer; and considering that according to a 2000 survey, 81% of Americans feel they should write a book, and 6 million have written manuscripts, that makes for a very broad potential readership - which is ironic considering that one of Zaid's main themes is to argue that the fact that the average book sells copies in the low thousands is a cause for celebration, not dismay! So Many Books is packed with lots of useful statistics about books (not boring tables of data but those wonderful nuggets of information that are so useful to store away for use in conversations to come!), but that's not the key reason to read it. The real reason is to share Zaid's enlightening and enthusiastic perspective of the world of books - all the way from Socrates (who favored conversation over books) to the current day.

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Read-Alikes

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Who Said...

Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

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